Patrick is a Ugandan Entrepreneur, acclaimed film maker and Ad-man, whose company Xibra, markets mobile platform solutions and provides creative communication services.
He has worked with leading brands like Google, MTN Uganda and South African Tourism Board. Patrick's writing brings a fresh new perspective to Technology, marketing and secrets to success
This blog is inspired by the numerous walks he take to the kiosk (Duuka).

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A new Chapter in life (Scary)

The first time I set foot in class was 16 years ago in a village school 90 Miles South West of Uganda. I remember the graceful Nursery teacher who struggled to introduce us to the world of education. Back then it made sense; go to school, study a noble profession like medicine, get a good job and buy a nice house. From as far back as third grade we started making plans on who we wanted to become. Most of us had high expectations like being an astrologist. Which was good because it gave us something to live for and even though now we are realizing that some of those ambitions were naïve, it certainly was beautiful to dream without limiting ourselves to what was actually possible Looking back at the past three years, I have been able to publish a magazine, have my Documentary air on a local television station for a month and I have made some pretty awesome friends. As I come to the conclusion of my educational journey, I look back on the experiences I have gone through and I am grateful for each one of them because they have groomed me into a tougher person. And even though I have not gotten there yet, I feel I have a clearer direction of where my life should be headed. Some people right from the start know who or what they want to be, but for some of us it takes years of searching before we finally figure out what we want out of life. I encourage everyone who still hasn’t found their passion, to keep looking and do not settle until you have. Because the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you love and it all starts with a dream. It’s amazing how some of our wildest dreams can come true when we start to believe that we can achieve. A week before my A- Level finals, I found myself in the headmasters office, making my first business pitch. I was requesting him to grant me the tender to design their first school magazine. An hour before going into his office I thought to myself, “I must be mad to even think for a moment a student like me, barely out of high school could be entrusted with the responsibility of publishing a magazine.” At the time I couldn’t even design a Christmas card! During the meeting I tried to remember all the professional advice I had been given by my friends. It was perhaps the longest meeting of my life. An hour later I was out of his office, with the deal and barely able to contain my excitement. Three months later work commenced. My other two friends and I decided to give it our best shot. I spent hours reading magazines from other schools, downloading Photoshop tutorials off the internet and developing the plan along the way. No one seemed to mind I was figuring out some of the stuff along the way. They were happy as long as they saw me busy in the small unused classroom which had become our office. Not everything was fun and there were days we had serious doubts about the project and our abilities and one night we even contemplated packing our things and sneaking out through the back because of fear of failure. But I am glad we stuck through it because it was through that project that I decided to apply to UCU to study mass communication and looking back now I have no regret. When it was finally complete, everything we had gone through seemed to make sense. The frustration was made up by the good work we were proud of. When I held the first copy in my hand, it all made sense. The trials, uncertainty, highs and lows. I started to understand the satisfaction derived from doing what I loved which in my case is Videography and photography. And for the past three years I have been at campus, I have tried to get better at what I do because I now realize the need to be different from all the other people who think having a camera makes one a good photographer by doing good work. When I was asked to write about a dynamic character, I felt highly unqualified to dwell on such subject matter and as a result this is around my 12th draft. And I would have continued counting if I hadn’t stopped and just taken the shot because sometimes all it takes is you taking the shot. The greatest lesson I have leant in life is never to be afraid of committing mistakes because it’s part of the learning process. Getting over the fear of failure allows us to experiment and try new things. In my line of work; arts, it can be devastating when we get it wrong and perhaps the hardest thing to do is to pick yourself up after screwing up so bad. I have learnt that mistakes are part of life and define we who we are. We should learn from them and move on. The lowest point in my career was November 2011 when my laptop was stolen. At the time I was working on the second edition of the magazine and was 99% percent done with editing a wedding I had shot a month before. Loss of the laptop sent me back to square one and for a while I didn’t know how to get myself back. It was a trying time but I am thankful for it because it was through that experience that I found what I loved to do. It allowed me to go into one of the most creative episode of my life and the pictures on this page were all taken in that time frame. So to you the reader, do not be afraid of failure, just go for it! After all you have nothing to lose. The late Steve Jobs remarked “Stay hungry, stay foolish”